Monday, February 21, 2011

Easter Crafts

This post is for my mother - we are kindred craft geeks. I talked to her several times over the weekend brain storming some craft ideas I was working on. So, this is all about the crafts!

If you despise stores like Hobby Lobby or glue makes you sneeze or you haven't cut out a pattern since first grade or you just hate all things crafty...do yourself a favor and stop reading right now. I want you to come back, though. Just spare yourself the cute bunnies, ric rac ribbon and pom pom noses.

So anyway, if you are still with me I spent some time this weekend working up some ideas for a craft we could do with the residents of Lakeside Apartments. Remember when I went with my friend Martha to that subsidized apartment complex downtown and met some wonderful people. Well, I am planning to go again in March and the nice lady who runs the show asked me if I had any ideas for a craft we could do.

I wish I could tell you how much fun it was for me - I just loved it.

Let me show you what I came up with!

First, I found this cute idea on-line for a bunny rabbit made from a gallon milk jug. The one I saw was spray painted and glittered on the outside, but I was just working up a prototype and didn't want to invest in the paint and glitter if we didn't decide to do this one. It took me literally ten minutes to do the entire thing from washing it out, cutting it, sticking on the eyes, ears, nose and feet. Super easy and I think just precious.

Isn't he cute? I called him Peter. Peter Rabbit.

I even stuck on a big ol' fluffy tail to his backside.

After that success, I started fooling around with decoupage on cardboard. I destroyed my dining room. I had glue and cardboard pieces from one end of it to the other, but boy did I enjoy it.

I think Mod Podge should change its name to "Fun in a Bottle". I have already started to think about decoupaging the backs of my kitchen chairs...no surface will be safe in my house after this weekend.

I cut lots of different shapes out of cardboard, like this bunny head. We are going for an Easter/Spring theme for the craft day so this seemed appropriate.

Covered it with a layer of Mod Podge.

Started sticking white tissue paper over it. Layering it with more Mod Podge and more tissue. It dried really fast since the cardboard was so porous.

Once I had the tissue all in place, one final thin layer of Mod Podge over the whole thing. Let it dry.

Added some wiggly eyes, a nose and some whiskers. I think looking at this picture that he probably needs a mouth too. I think I could either draw it on with a marker or find a button or something to stick on it. I used a pipe cleaner to make the hanger, but might use wire and raffia like I did on some later projects if we go with this one.

I made this cross with a solid sheet of scrapbook paper. Same idea, glued it on, Mod Podged over it.

This cross was made with tissue paper and I bedazzled it with a giant gemstone. I really liked the cardboard showing through in spots on this one.

This one I photographed completely crooked, but tilt your head to the right and it is better. For this one, I took two different coordinating scrapbook pages, tore them into small pieces and glued them kind of haphazardly all over the cross. I really liked this one. It was really thick and substantial.

Then I made this little square picture. The background is a napkin and then I put a little Easter cutout on top, decoupaged the whole thing, added some ric rac trim and I thought it was super cute.

My final prototype was an Easter Egg. It went kind of Hawaiian on me, but I still kind of liked it.

Bottom line...the possibilities are endless if you have some cardboard and Mod Podge. Fun, easy and CHEAP!!